What REAL Reactive Dog Socialisation Looks Like (It's Not What You Think)

So this is life skills class. We do this weekly on a dinner time on a Saturday, and it's for existing clients that have been through a boot camp and it's always offsite. It's a very good opportunity to practice what you've learned throughout the boot camp.

Cutie.

So Jenny, you've done a 5-day boot camp?

Yes.

Tell me the difference from the beginning to now.

I mean, it's kind of like night and day, really. So what I feel like now is that there was— there's light at the end of the tunnel, whereas there was like no tunnel before, basically. That's kind of how I describe it to people.

And you've done a couple of life skills class? Yeah, yeah.

How have you found them?

Like really good. I suppose my biggest issue was just having the confidence to put it all together in real life scenarios. So to be able to do that is, yeah, it's really good because you've got the confidence of having the, you guys and the trainers around us.

And tell me what Gus was like before the boot camp.

I mean, he was, if you kind of got near another dog on lead, it was mostly lead related. His reaction was pretty mega. I mean, he's a big dog. Yeah. So, and my kind of reaction would be to kind of clam up and like hold onto him, which was kind of fueling the fire. Now I understand it better.

So.

But yeah, he's now living more of a fulfilled life. He's very curious. He's like, what's going on?

So what's life like now? Give us a little update on Gus's life.

Oh, so compared to kind of walking and avoiding at like weird times and weird places, we can now pretty much go anywhere. So we let him off lead. He's having a really sort of fulfilled life. He's, you know, pottering around. He's coming back to us. It's You know, I'm noticing him more because he's obviously having more of that time to be a dog that he's then kind of more chilled at home afterwards. So yeah, it's nice and you kind of start to see how you're giving him a better life and, you know, we all have a better life off the back of it.

Nice, perfect. You're lovely.

He's been for a walk this morning in the buttercup fields. It's all like long grass. So he's got this big like yellow green patch on his little nose. He's lovely. He's a good boy. Oh, he has as well.

You've stained your face, mate. She's doing it.

Cool guys, we're gonna get moving. We're gonna head straight down this path. There's gonna be off-lead dogs approaching.

You all know what to do, we've done it a million times now. So let's just get moving.

Table in your front tray.

What do you mean my back tray?

Your left hand, the one you don't write with.

You're gonna fall. Just watch her pulling. She's a good girl. She is, she is.

We're on holiday next Friday.

Right.

Dirty Benny dorm.

Nice.

The Blackpool of Spain.

I've got a nice hotel though.

It doesn't count.

And I don't drink.

It's just nice having sun in it.

Give me the toilet.

The indignity.

I know.

On film as well.

Have you not seen the picture of Bodied that Luke has done? I'm printing it and putting it in my downstairs toilet. Such a pretty girl. Such a pretty girl. She just told me people say that. When I first got her, people said, hey, you like, she's fucking ugly. Do you not think sometimes the ugly ones are cute though? Because they're a bit ugly. Different. Yeah.

Yeah.

Hi, it's Dawn.

I've not had a single dog that's symmetrical. They've all been slightly wonky in some way.

It's called character.

There's an offlead dog coming up, so just be aware. As we're coming past. Beautiful.

She's there.

Yeah, that's cute. Stop avoiding.

I know, stop it.

Stop running around trees. Oh God, I love it. What? They just like Just icing the cake. That's great.

How far do you travel down?

About an hour.

About an hour. They all look the same. I got told they all look the same. All the boys all look the exact same.

Owen shouted down the car park the other day when I was talking to the guy.

He was like, yeah, but I'm the better looking one. And the woman I was stood with just went, that's perspective, isn't it? Yeah, I know.

So that's why we walk pretty much every morning.

It's nice around there.

As soon as he's off lead, there's other dogs around, it's like a goblin. You've seen the big field.

It's like, yeah, no, it's nice. It's quite open as well, but you still see stuff.

Jacob Morgan, people around that field, he'll be pottering around. He's not making a beeline for anything.

Nice.

He has had a few interactions and they're generally like, there's a couple of big dogs that like want to come over and sniff at him.

Yeah.

I think we still just need to find some local friends where we can do this kind of stuff together. Just, yeah.

Like really make it more normal.

Yeah, but now he's been— it's just, I can just see it in him. He's obviously getting more off lead time and better walks and therefore happier generally and calmer.

Freedom! It's amazing what it does. Oh, I know.

So you did the resocialization workshop, which is again after the boot camp? Yes. Tell me how that went.

It was really good because I guess it's like a confidence thing for me, so I just wanted to kind of have that controlled environment where I could do the kind of close proximity to dog stuff, and it was really good. The day was structured, yeah, as with boot camp, really, really well. You kind of built on certain things and layered up to the kind of close and off-lead stuff with dogs. So yeah, by the end of the day we were off-lead pottering around and absolutely loving it. Nice.

And that's a full day again, innit?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, the days go so quick, don't they?

It's—

you never feel like you're not packing a lot in on a day. So yeah, I would definitely recommend it. Nice. I just, I like the fact that you do these like weekly classes and the socialization stuff that's on the, you know, the early Saturday class which is at the center. I think it's just nice to know that you've got that option to keep coming back, and I'm lucky that I live close by. So, um, yeah, you'll probably not get rid of me for some time. So nice. That's good for us because I know that the problem, I say problem with him, is 80% me and my kind of worry. So just to have that as the, you know, it helps build the confidence basically.

Yeah, of course.

I think that's like 80% of our job is training humans.

Yes, well, I was going to say, probably like 99, let's be honest.

Yeah.

Good girlie.

Daxie party! Get this daxie party! There's a daxie party!

Uh-oh, are they all afraid?

Wow.

Make sure all my dogs here are walking nice and calmly past these and quiet, please. Some reactive dogs in there.

Oh wow, it's a sausage party, sausage fest.

Nice.

Well, this is all the reactive dogs are out today. Not my group though. It's not my group. Get nice— get your positive markers in at these ones. Make sure you're rewarding when you pass.

Marking.

Yes, nice.

Good boy. Not one of my dogs booted off then.

I kind of feel a bit mind-blown that it's literally— we did our boot camp the 13th of April, I think it was, and we were only— what the— I don't even know what day it is, 22nd of May, 23rd of May or something, and it's like that time period. Compared to the year before was like—

we could switch on to our longer leads and let them have a bit of freedom around this bit before the narrow opens.

Go have a good sniff.

Beautiful.

What's recall like?

Yeah, good.

Got connection?

Yeah.

Let him off for a minute.

Yeah.

Go on then. Probably won't go anywhere.

He's like, okay, I go right next to you.

If he goes to go up to another dog, should I just say—

I'd recall him, yeah. Straight through the puddle.

Cool, when we hit the edge of the grass, we'll reattach our short leads for the narrow paths.

And once we come around the lake, we'll switch back on to off-lead or long lines. Oh, babies!

Cute.

What a nice little walk. Just be sensible down there.

Nice tight path. Choose your side. Pick this side, Heidi.

It's like a schnauzer path.

Nice.

Get a positive in. There's another one coming.

There's another two.

Beautiful!

Nice!

Thank you! Alright! There's an Alex in the wild.

We'd look at doing either or. The thing is, if you just poison through the slip, you end up on the prong anyway. Okay, the prong is much clearer.

So you guys did a 5-day boot camp back in December. Yeah, we're now middle of May. Tell me the difference, what happened before, why you did boot camp, and where we're at now.

Yeah, so, um, before we came to boot camp, he literally didn't know his own name. He didn't listen to anything, he had no recall, and he was, um, reactive to dogs as well. Yeah, so yeah, that's why we came to boot camp, and then Now we've been to boot camp, he's been absolutely amazing.

Nice.

He knows his name, he comes when I want him to come to me.

Would you believe that you've been able to do this with all these dogs around and he's just off lead?

No, never, never.

What would you say was the biggest thing like that's made a difference for you now?

Just being able to walk him off the lead out in the park. We used to go for walks at like 5 in the morning and then take him out late at night, and now we can just He's not ruling our life, basically. We can take him whenever we want to.

Nice. 12 PM on a Saturday in the sunshine. Exactly.

With loads of dogs.

It's a win.

So he's a Raven Shepherd, but I think he's got a bit of Flat Coated Retriever in him.

He's got a beautiful coat, hasn't he?

Yeah.

Oh, tiny boy. Look at them ears. Do you see those ears?

We went to a race meet thing, we do like this off-road racing stuff, and we met my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and they've got a Lab Rosie, but they were like, oh my God, he's like a different dog. And it was, I guess you do see it, but you don't see it as such a stark sort of change, I suppose. But that was quite nice to hear.

We're gonna start heading back up to the car park if you want to start heading this direction.

Yeah, he's a good lad. Don't you dare put him back on a lead.

Okay.

You've got an off-lead heel, right?

Yep.

So we could essentially get up to the car park without him being on a lead.

Okay.

This way.

Think we can off-lead heel up to the car?

Yep.

Heel.

I'll use my hands again.

It's fine, you'll phase it out, don't worry. So this is the sort of stuff that you're saying you're struggling with?

Yeah, if I was to see another dog coming this way on the path.

Keep your pace the same.

Okay.

Tap your black to bring him back in. There you go.

Yeah, I slowed down then, didn't I?

Yeah.

Turn now if he doesn't come with you. Black. Then turn now. He turns with you. Fine.

Can I give him a marker? Or not the yes, because that offended too. He's bothered by bunnies. Lying down, say, for example, like your duration or your continuation marker.

So you could, but for me, if a dog understands what it is I don't really need to be like, hey, I'm going to pay you in that position constantly. Also, he's pretty food motivated as well. What you can do with that is go, oh, the food's here, and if you pay him slightly out of position, he's going to break it, and then you have to then go, ah, shit, I need to bring you back. So like, turn black. Fine. And then turn again. Cool, put him on the lead now. I would do more redirect stuff. So I think we did it when we went to Roundhay Park, when we did it with New Bear, the little shepherd Akita thing. We're like, we're walking up, we see, yes, turn back, pay, keep going to the thing. Then you go, yes, turn back, pay. Eventually he starts to go like, oh, see, dog, look at you. That's going to break your fixation.

It's the only time he ignores me.

Is he off lead or on lead?

Well, either.

Either. If he's on lead and you go yes and he ignores, pop, pop, back into you. More you do of that, the more he's going to stop going, because linear path, he focuses on dog and then he goes like, oh, there's nothing else, and it's just the dog. We can get him to turn his focus back on you. It doesn't matter if it's a dog, two dogs, three dogs. He's obviously better open fields because he's got visible things to do, right?

Yeah, deer, rabbit, anything. He'll have a little look.

Fine.

Maybe if I let him have a little chase and he'll come back.

Yeah, yeah, more of that.

So thank you.

Do your phase 3 for your loose lead. Do a little bit of your redirect stuff on your lead. When you do the off-lead stuff with your phase 3, he'll be glued here. And then he's also got that thing of like, oh dog, look at Mom. So then the dog doesn't matter how tight the path is. One, he knows he needs to be glued here, and two, he goes, well, if I look at Mom, I get food. Then you could be like, good, pay. Okay, ultimately phase it out long term because you don't want to always have to pay for dogs.

Yeah, right. Yeah, now I've got it. Thank you.

All good.

Good boy.

Come on, let me give you a food. Hello, hello, hello, hello.

I did it!

I did the thing, you were a good boy.

So that was Life Skills. It's a great opportunity to join after a boot camp to get around other dogs off lead with trainers here, more to build your confidence than your dog. So if you want to watch a video on how to socialise your dog, watch this video here.